In The '50s, It Was State Street. In The '70s, It Was Rush Street. Today . . . The Hot Zone For Nightlife Has Moved To River North And Beyond

With Its Mix Of Clubs And Restaurants, It Isn't Just For Tourists Anymore

May 14, 1996|By Howard Reich, Tribune Arts Critic.

It's well past midnight, but the sidewalks are swarming with people, the streets jammed with taxis, limos, horse-drawn carriages, roller-bladers, you name it. The prom crowd--conspicious in tuxedos and gowns--is out in full force, but so are the yuppie revelers, late-night party animals, jazz-club habitues and well-coiffed, well-heeled suburbanites and urbanites pouring out of four-star restaurants.

Welcome to Friday night in River North, the Courthouse District, Planet Hollywood-land or whatever you choose to call it. No one yet seems to have coined a name to sum up the freewheeling carnival of lights, music, food and drink that inexorably is emerging as Chicago's premier nightlife district.

What the Loop was in the '50s, what Rush Street was in the '70s, the neon-drenched corridors north of the Chicago River and west of Michigan Avenue have come to represent in the '90s (with Orleans and Division Streets as approximate borders on the west and north). Though the neighborhood has been bashed for the tacky architecture of Planet Hollywood, the chintzy facade of Capone's Chicago and the outsized neon guitar towering over the Hard Rock Cafe, lately it has become something more than just an urban Disneyland with glitzy national restaurant chains as its main attractions.

Thanks to the rise of several jazz joints (the new Jazz Showcase and the remodeled Backroom), piano bars (Redhead, Palette's, Magnum's and Set 'Em Up Joe), blues dens (B.L.U.E.S. Chicago) and trendy dance clubs (Excalibur, Inta's), the sprawling neighborhood is giving Chicago something it hasn't seen since the demise of the old Rush Street strip in the '80s: a bona fide nightlife area thick with restaurants, clubs and street life.

"It's amazing what's happening around here--it's just like all the dark streets have lit up," says Scott Chisholm, who opened Andy's Jazz Club on East Hubbard Street in 1978.

"There used to be a time when people couldn't even find Hubbard Street, let alone feel safe coming down here. Now the street is practically running out of places for new restaurants and clubs."

But Hubbard Street, with its diverse collection of noteworthy restaurants, isn't the only boulevard that has been teeming with nightlife. The neon-bright Ontario strip (home to the Hard Rock Cafe and the Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's), the chic Clark Street lineup (its sidewalks crammed with al fresco diners in spring, summer and fall), the funky Wells Street stretch (bookended by Ed Debevic's and Zanies comedy club), each has a character of its own.

Only in the past few years, however, has this unabashedly commercial neighborhood started to become a genuine entertainment mecca, drawing locals and serious listeners as well as tourists and revelers. The rise of newer venues--such as Redhead Piano Bar, Underground Wonderbar and Set 'Em Up Joe--has bolstered the importance of long-standing ones, such as Andy's, on the south end of the neighborhood, and Yvette on the north.

Prestigious newcomer

If there were any doubt that the area was becoming a genuine entertainment destination, it was erased when Joe Segal brought his venerable Jazz Showcase club to 59 W. Grand Ave. this year. Segal had been forced out of the Blackstone Hotel, where he had held court for 15 years, and he clearly decided to go where the action was.

"You've got all these people coming down to Michael Jordan's restaurant, Ed Debevic's and Planet Hollywood, and all that street traffic can only help business," says Segal, who has been presenting top jazz acts for 49 years.

"In fact, if someone comes in here and tells me they're not happy with the entertainment, I send them to Joe's Showcase. I tell them he's a five-minute walk from here. And Joe already has sent plenty people here."

What's more, with the Jazz Record Mart (billed as the world's largest jazz record store) last year having moved to 444 N. Wabash Ave., music lovers now have a kind of golden triangle of jazz attractions.

Add to that such high-profile blues establishments as B.L.U.E.S. Chicago, with two outposts on North Clark Street, plus the coming House of Blues, with its 1,500-seat concert hall and 400-room hotel to open in Marina City later this year, and there's little doubt that music has taken root in the district.

Why did it happen? Why did so many clubowners and restaurateurs choose to set up shop in River North and adjacent areas?

"It wasn't by accident," says Albert M. Friedman, one of the area's primary developers and president of the River North Association. "In the '70s, when you'd walk along Clark Street, you'd have to avoid stepping on the bums sitting on the ground.